They're Not Always There by Chance
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I read with dismay and disbelief the constant barrage of negativity and callousness to the plight of the less fortunate in our nation and here locally.
The parade led by millionaires and Fox News down the yellow brick road to freedom from taxes and gun control seems to bypass their neighborhoods. Somehow it’s all President Obama’s fault these families are in this position. Tax cuts, two unfunded wars, and a banking collapse seem not to matter in their pronouncements.
For the greater part these folks are not there by choice. Life has not dealt them a fair hand, yet they strive to get by with what they have.
They are not entrepreneurs or business owners, but they do form the base that these businessmen use to generate their wealth.
They are not the money-sucking pariah defined in some of the recent letters and commentary stating that these folks are looking for a handout at every turn. Most work very hard, for very few wages. They get tired, they get hungry, they get old, they cry, and, yes, they bleed.
Take a tour of the back roads here in our local area where many of these residents live; the roads are not paved, street lighting is nonexistent, drainage has been designed by Mother Nature, yet they live in these conditions because it’s what they can afford. Somehow it’s felt they don’t even deserve that.
Drive the roads, knock on some doors and have a conversation. Cut, cut, deny, deny, will have less relevance toward having less government and balancing the budget solely on the backs of the poor if the trip is taken.
It’s very easy to say we should cut programs and reduce benefits if you will never have a need to use them.
David Gray
Pinehurst
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Comments
pulledpork 2 months, 1 week ago
Mr. Gray seems like a nice concerned man for the poor and less fortunate yet he cannot help himself to take a shot at Fox News and millionaires. I'm not sure why Fox News has a part in his letter except maybe his has drinken too much coolaide at CNN. A couple quick points, the "banking collapse" was preciptated by Bill Clinton ordering Fannie Mae to ease requirements on banks when buying their home loans. This is what lead to the housing crisis. Mr. Gray needs to read up on that. As far as tax cuts go, Obama got his wish to raise rates to 39%. Wohoo! That gets the Feds 100 billion a year, just 900 billion to go to balance the budget.
No one like being poor, that is usually an incentive to work hard to get out of poverty. There are jobs out there that do not pay very much, but sometimes one has to do things one doesn't like to do to get along in this world. The concept of safety nets has given way to a way of life. Many people are not dealt good hands but you do what you can (and do not want) to lift your bootstraps and make a go of it. We are becoming an entitled society where everyone deserves everything.
And now we have Obamacare on the way. All the coolaide drinking in the world is not going to be able to obfuscate the American public that the middle class will be bearing the load. It will be the giant equalizer between the middle class and the lower class into one giant sea of mediocrity. The wealthy will not be nearly as affected by Obamacare as the middle class will be. But you can't begin to explain such things to the brainwashed viewers of CNN, PBS, ABC, etc..Be advised, come August and September our world is going to be rocked and it will be too late. We are going the way of England and Western Europe into full scale socialism. By ther way he speaks, that should be a ok with that.
LBK 2 months, 1 week ago
Excellent letter, Mr. Gray.
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
Puulepork - You're pulling our leg. There is no evidence whatsoever that Fannie Mae had any significant role in the housing bubble. You will be hard put to find a Fed member or a knowledgeable economist who would agree with your assertion.
If you have any empathy for the poor, your post shows absolutely no sign of it. Just right-wing blather.
Mr. Gray's thoughtful letter illuminates a serious problem that goes largely ignored. If only Christians had some example to guide them with respect to the poor and their treatment by society.
nothingspecial 2 months, 1 week ago
Mr. Gray I'll bet you a dollar if you yourself would knock on those doors of the working poor and middle class you would find that this administration is burying them with unemployment, high fuel and energy costs. Stop being so ideological and start actually honestly studying the issues.
njc17 2 months, 1 week ago
Mr Heim: Fannie Mae did create a false housing bubble and along with other corporate debt issues ensued the financial collapse. Please learn economics 101. This letter is an example of the entitlement crowd looking for the perennial handout. blame, blame, blame. Mr Grey, Mr Obama, , why it's never their fault, it's the millionaires, it's the fat cat republicans, anybody else but them. I keep iterating and reiterating, PERSONAL RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! When will the lazy people of the world wake up?
bufordsplay 2 months, 1 week ago
And how do propose making sure everyone gets dealt a fair hand in life? By stealing private property? MORONIC!
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
njc17 - All you lack is any actual evidence to prove that. And it won't be easy, being that you are totally wrong.
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
njc - Here's an analysis By Robert Kuttner of Fannie Mae's part of the debacle:
As Morgenson and Rosner obliquely acknowledge elsewhere in the book, other Wall Street firms created the subprime bubble precisely because Fannie would not buy those loans. Morgenson and Rosner admit this contradiction when they write of the Wall Street-financed boom in poor-quality loans that took off circa 2001: “Because higher-quality borrowers were still at this time the domain of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, Wall Street could not hope to compete in this area. So the big investment firms stepped up their interest in alternative mortgage products offered to sub-prime or near-prime borrowers.” In other words, Wall Street went where Fannie prudently feared to tread. Morgenson and Rosner contend that Fannie’s perdition began in the mid-1990s when the company started purchasing mortgages with down payments of just 5 percent. “Traditionally,” they write, “banks had required that borrowers put 20 percent of the property price down to secure a mortgage loan.” That’s an embarrassingly novice mistake. Veterans’ loans under the GI bill accepted zero down payments. For decades, the Federal Housing Administration has insured loans with down payments of 5 percent—and these loans were purchased by Fannie Mae. Private mortgage insurers, which began competing with the FHA in the 1960s, also offered insured loans with small down payments. How could Morgenson and Rosner have missed something so basic and central to the story? What made these loans safe and insurable and liquid in the secondary market was careful underwriting, of the property value and the borrower’s capacity to pay, not the down payment. It was the lack of serious underwriting that made subprime such a disaster.
Can you find a smoking gun to prove this wrong?
bufordsplay 2 months, 1 week ago
Sorry Mr. Gray but almost everyone is where they are because of choices they have made. How is it the fault of Foxnews and Millionaires that someone is poor? How is someone living in CCNC responsible for someone living on Mechanic Street? Less fortunate insinuates that it is all luck Mr. Gray and that's ridiculous. Some are more talented than others and you cannot regulate that. I am suprised that any liberal can be a sports fan because in sports only the best play and you seem to hate that. Was I dealt a fair hand by not having world class speed or having an arm like Peyton Manning or be able to shoot a Basketball or having 7 foot height? Why should'nt I be able to play in the N.F.L or N.B.A.? The answer is quite simple. The team that was forced to play me would suffer and yet that is what you expect from a company that is forced to hire someone who is not qualified. Your argument is infantile.
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
bufordsplay - If you're not worth more than $5 million, you're one of the losers. Where did you go wrong?
DingoMike 2 months, 1 week ago
Life, Liberty and the pursuit of happiness. No where in that statement does it guarantee that everyone will succeed. It sucks to be poor and that was always a great motivator for me to get a better education and work hard and learn as much as I could. Knowledge is power, and that can never be taken away.
AFCHIEF 2 months, 1 week ago
Dingo, why work hard to earn a living for yourself and family when you have Obamanation and his liberal cohorts who take your money and give it to lazy people who are dependent on the govt to live. Unfortunately this is the new USA.
clarabelle 2 months, 1 week ago
" AFCHUMP - Dingo, why work hard to earn a living for yourself and family when you have Obamanation and his liberal cohorts who take your money and give it to lazy people who are dependent on the govt to live. Unfortunately this is the new USA."
BLAH BLAH BLAH............. same ol chit .............. change CD's already!
btw ............ I would reply intelligently - but then your sorry ### couldn't comprehend anyhow!
clarabelle 2 months, 1 week ago
" wd40 - The poor are poor because many of them don't want to be anything else."
And you are an idiot because you have no brain............... life is tough!
AFCHIEF 2 months, 1 week ago
Clarabelle because the TRUTH HURTS is that why it bothers you.
Toda 2 months, 1 week ago
Thank you Mr Gray for your informative letter. A study was conducted by UNC Chapel Hill that provided an overview of poverty in Poorer County. The study conducted by UNC Law is a document on Municipal Underbounding: LINK HERE
Themis 2 months, 1 week ago
The Bible says there will always be the poor in the world. When all of us started school we were all given the same books, pencils and paper. What we did with them from there was up to us. I now have little pity for many "poor" because many are there out of their own laziness, addictions of many kinds, and overall poor self control and discipline. Don't believe me? That's fine too. My wife and I have tried to help for years only to have each case result in going backwards to where they were when we started. No one wants to hear it, but it is the sad truth. Of course, it is not always the case as some land there through no choice of their own and I do feel for them and wish them all the best. Those of you who want to strongly disagree with what I say must not spend a lot of time among the poor to know better. There is a chance that the ones we have dealt with have just soured us in a bad way. I could write a book on the times we have tried to help with money just to see them go buy beer or a new shotgun instead of putting diapers on their children. We even bought one family a car and in 3 weeks they had traded it for a big screen TV. I bought one guy who was a mechanic hundreds of dollars of tools so he could get a job only to find out he pawned them to get the money to buy a motorcycle. So now we live by the words of a famous play " To Thine Own Self Be True." After you feed a dog and get bit too many times trying to do it, you grow very tired of it. I am sure to get blasted for this post but at least I have brought forth a different view that few are willing to admit.
moonchild7 2 months, 1 week ago
The Calvinists in Europe started all this mess and then they brought it here to America. Otherwise known as the PROTESTANT WORK ETHIC, their beliefs are quite simple, " WORK HARD and GOD WILL REWARD YOU". So, if you don't work hard then you'll be punished with the WRATH of GOD and be POOR. It's still engrained in much of America's thinking, i.e. Republican Tea Party Nutz. They totally believe that NO MATTER WHAT everyone should be WORKING and WORKING HARD. Disability doesn't count as an excuse. Even though many Disabled persons work and earn some parts of a living those NUTZ feel that if you can't work and support yourself 100%, then you're NO GOOD and DESERVE to be PUNISHED. There's NO HELP for you. It's another sick bunch of so-called Christians. They rely on the Old Testament and sorta skip over all of Jesus' Teachings even though they say they believe. They LIE, are mean-spirited ghouls and continue to ruin America.
Toda 2 months, 1 week ago
The Working Poor... by Tommy Davis
DingoMike 2 months, 1 week ago
Clarabelle, just because I disagree with your opinion does not make me a dummy. Your world must be very small. Stop all the name calling, it makes you look bitter.
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
Themis - You must have gone to school in a wondrous place. Here in America the quality of your education (and the books and facilities) is largely based on the local tax base. If you live in one of the poorer neighborhoods, your school is going to be nowhere as nice (or as well staffed) as in a richer one.
And that's a shame because this country has a seriously poor record when it comes to upward mobility. If you're born poor, you're are most likely going to die poor. And you children will suffer the same fate.
There's only so much room at the top, and rich, white folk have that territory pretty much sewn up.
JimHeim 2 months, 1 week ago
afchief - If the poor have it so good, why are you not on that gravy train? It's amazingly easy to qualify.
AFCHIEF 2 months, 1 week ago
Heim it's called PRIDE and initiative. Sure I could take it easy and not work but I've had a job since I was 16 and NOT working would not feel right to me.
pulledpork 2 months, 1 week ago
Jimheim, relax, your socialist utopia is waiting in the wings of 2014. Obamacare will be the great equalizer. The more you make, the more you pay for your health insurance. The less you make, the less you pay. The subisies are VERY generous indeed. Trust me on this one. I can give you the details if you're up to it. Suffice to say if you make over $45,000 and are single, you get no subsidy. If your 4-person household makes over $94,000, you get no subsidy. People makeing less than those figures are going to get VERY generous subsidies. If you make over $200,000, get get an additional 3.8% love-tap income tax tacked on to your IRS obligations. Prwemiums are expected to increase very dramtically due to various add-ons, chiefly that maternity is now mandatory coverage on every policy sold individually. So let's say your are a single male, making $45,000 and your individual BCBS policy is costing you $300/month. Well, very easily in 2014 your rate could be $450/month or higher. You can do the math from there. Or let's say you have mom and dad working and combined they make over $94000 and pay $1000/month for faimly coverage... what if their premium jumps to $1500/month. And we have not even begun to talk about group ceverage, which will also be a completely fubar. The layers of beurocracy(sp) will be staggering... And we also haven't begun to talk about the screw-job young folks will be seeing. Their premiums are going to be most adversely affected of all....like I said, be patient, your socialist utopia is just around the corner...
Themis 2 months, 1 week ago
JIMHEIM - I agree with what ya say......we do have a poor record of upward mobility. I would also agree that the odds are against it, but you and I both know it can be done. We see success stories all of the time. I firmly believe that anyone at anytime can turn their lives around and start taking responsibility for their situation, and at least better their lives in some ways. If you are in financial trouble, stopping drinking and smoking is a huge way to save money. I don't mean to attack the poor and I think you saw that in my post. I just want it to be stated for thought that some folks are just fine with nothing and do not want to lift a finger to try and do better for themselves. Some people you just cannot help because they are their own worst enemies and are self destructive. I was raised poorer than most but not as poor as some. I knew at an early age I wanted more and to get there I would have to work very hard in both school and in life, I still do. I have eaten sweet potato and collard green sandwiches for school lunch, and oatmeal hamburgers if you have ever heard of them. This is after all America. I still believe that it is a land where with hard work, dedication, and perhaps some luck and good fortune, anyone can rise above and make a success of their lives. But no where is it written that the climb to get there will be an easy one. You have to want it with all of your heart.